"Things Are Not Always as They Appear..."

“You can’t always tell what folks are up to,” Bo said, scratching his left ear with a practiced paw. “Sometimes they are doing something that’s useless, and sometimes there’s a reason. Unless you know the whole story, you can only jump to conclusions.”

“Whatever do you mean Uncle Bo?” asked Morgan, one of Bo’s two nieces who were visiting from Indiana.

“Well,” replied Bo, “Look at that turkey hen over there.”

“Yes, Uncle Bo. I see her. She’s sitting on her nest in the shade of the lean-to. She’s been carefully guarding that nest for days.”

“You’re right,” answered Bo. “But what you can’t tell is there are no eggs in her nest! Her eggs are over under that clump of bamboo in the sun on the far edge of the barn.” 

“What!” barked Nessie, the other niece from Indiana. “No eggs? Why is she still sitting there then? Why isn’t she sitting on her eggs in the other spot instead? Shouldn’t she be where the eggs are?”

“That’s a good question, Nessie. Why don’t you ask her?”

“Well, Uncle Bo,” interrupted Morgan, “That hardly seems polite. If we ask her why she’s not sitting on eggs, she’ll notice that we know she’s not sitting on any eggs. It seems to me that this decision of hers might be personal.”

“That’s very compassionate of you, Morgan,” answered Bo. “Okay, I’ll tell you the story. You know that turkeys sit on eggs about 24 days give or take a few. Tattie over there is a new mother and this is her first year nesting. Her mother isn’t around to given her any advice, so she’s had to figure things out on her own. When she first made her nest, the weather was COLD! So, she picked a spot where the sun would warm her and the eggs.”

“That sounds like a good idea, Uncle Bo,” Morgan and Nessie chimed together. “So, what happened?”

“Well,” Uncle Bo continued, “Things went fine for awhile, and the eggs were almost ready to hatch. But then, the weather suddenly changed. Instead of being very cold, now the days are in the 90s. The sun baked the spot she picked, and not only would the heat have cooked her, but broiled the eggs too. She tried to stick it out with her eggs, and she nearly passed out from heatstroke. When that she felt that the eggs had become too hot and would no longer hatch, she abandoned them and sought out a new nest in the shade.”


“Gosh,” said Morgan, “that’s sad! She lost her babies. Couldn’t she have moved them?”

“You would think so, Morgan,” answered Bo sadly. “But if you notice, turkeys have no hands. To move those eggs, she would have to roll them across the hot sand. Besides, by the time she realized she had to move, the damage to the eggs was already done.”

Morgan gave a small whimper to show her sympathy for the poor mama turkey.

“But, why does she keep sitting and sitting when there are no eggs?” asked Nessie.

“Well, girls. Now at first glance, it looks like she’s continuing doing something that now no longer has a point. After all, there’s her eggs on the far side of the barn, and she’s over here under the lean-to without them.”

Nessie looked from the eggs to the turkey. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“You see girls, Tattie Turkey plans to try again. So right now, she’s just practicing. Before risking laying any more eggs, she’s making sure her new nest won’t get too hot. She doesn’t want to lose any more babies. So she’s playing it safe.”

“Wow,” said Nessie, “She’s smarter than I thought.”

“Tattie Turkey learned that it’s best to have a good nest built before trying to hatch baby turkeys,” explained Bo. “So now she will test every nest before laying her precious eggs. She’ll make sure she has a good home to bring up her baby turkeys before starting to hatch them.”

“Mmm….”, grunted Nessie, “I think I learned something too.” Nessie started walking off toward a shady spot under the trees. “See you later, Uncle Bo. I need to dig out a good napping spot before summer. I want to go watch the shadows so I can see where I’ll have the best shade for the afternoon.”

Bo nodded “goodbye” to Nessie, and Morgan lay watching the big Tom Turkey strut around. First Tom puffed up all his feathers, then he took a large gasp of air. He charged forward about 24 inches, dragging his wing tips on the ground. Then he grunted out the air making a loud noise. When he finished this routine, Tom did the whole thing again….over and over and over.

“Uncle Bo,” Morgan asked. “What is Tom Turkey doing?” 

“He’s strutting around looking obvious.”

“Well, he surely is obvious!” exclaimed Morgan. “Why does he need to do that?”

“Two reasons,” Bo began. “First, it’s what male turkeys do. They constantly show off for each other and try to look like the biggest, meanest Tom around.”

“That sounds dumb,” Morgan exclaimed. 

“You’re right, Morgan. It’s pretty silly. People and even some dogs do this too, sometimes. It’s a big waste of time all this strutting around trying to look tough.” Bo shook his head, thinking about the turkey. “No one ever gets to know a turkey. All they see is the big tough creature that the turkey pretends to be.”

“That’s sad too, Uncle Bo,” Morgan answered. “But you said there were two reasons. What is the other one?”

“Well, again, the other reason makes something that’s silly make sense,” Bo continued. “While the Tom turkey is strutting around getting noticed, he’s making the hen turkey and the nest safer. Predators and things that eat turkeys will notice Tom first and go after him. That makes Mrs. Turkey safer.”

“Oh, well, that’s not so dumb then, Uncle Bo,” Morgan said, looking puzzled. “Gosh, things aren’t always as they appear, are they?” 

“Yup, now you’re getting it, Morgan,” Bo said, giving her a lick on the forehead. “Things aren’t always what they appear.”

“Look, Uncle Bo,” Morgan exclaimed. “Look at Nessie’s napping hole she’s digging in the morning shade. Her napping hole will be in the sun in a few hours.”

“I guess she didn’t learn from the story of the turkey’s nest,” Bo said sadly.

“No, Uncle Bo,” said Morgan with a sly smile. “I think she learned more than you think. Look she has another hole on the other side of the tree. But she’s tricked Ben and Bingo to dig on the wrong side so that the best spots are saved for her!”

“You’re right, Morgan!” said Bo in surprise. “And I forgot my own lesson. Things aren’t always as they seem.”

As Morgan jumped up and ran off to help Nessie dig, Bo turned around for the third time, and settled down for another comfortable nap in the mid-morning shade.